Chapter Text
Eren would have been lying if he’d said he was surprised by this development. Eren’s and Armin’s mothers had been friends for years, and until Mikasa had been adopted their sons been two of the only young kids in the neighbourhood. Simple logistics had ensured that they met before they could so much as toddle. Sheer compatibility had kept them together through the nearly decade and a half that had followed. Armin had been such a constant that Eren had never felt that much need to interrogate their relationship. Of course, Eren had been thinking, for as long as he could remember, that Armin was almost overwhelmingly brilliant and cute and interesting and comfortable to be around and—
The point was, it was hardly a shock that he’d developed a crush. If anything he was a bit puzzled that it had taken him until ninth grade to put that name to it. But now it was here, this little flutter in his chest, chittering away for attention. He thought it was only right that he should ask Armin how to proceed. Armin would know what to do about this, if anything. Armin always knew.
Of course, Eren didn’t want to just walk up to him and flatly state, ‘I’ve got a crush on you and we need tactics, damn it.’ Eren had seen and read enough romantic media to know that the confession was important in and of itself. After all, Armin had snickered at Mr. Darcy during the version of Pride and Prejudice that had been on television last week. ‘Why bother saying it if he’s going to make it sound like he regrets it? He’s such a jerk,’ Armin had said. Eren wanted to be everything but a jerk, especially as far as Armin was concerned. Whether or not anything came of this, then, he needed to present it in a way that would say, ‘Hello yes I'd be so happy if I could kiss you.’
Without literally saying, ‘Hello yes I'd be so happy if I could kiss you,' if he could avoid it. Sometimes Armin laughed when he was surprised or taken aback or otherwise left speechless. Even though Eren knew that, he didn't think he'd be able to take it if that was the response he got. This was going to require a little more tact. It would have been easier, Eren thought, if he remembered how he'd become friends with Armin in the first place. If he'd had some method that had been effective all those years ago, some way of proposing the start of a relationship, it might have been easier to see how to go about suggesting a change in it. As far as he'd seen in the old family videos his mother played every Christmas, his and Armin's friendship had started out with them crawling on, drooling on, and sleeping on one another. Somehow he didn't think that would go over quite so well this time.
This whole exploration had been prompted by a fit of winter drowsiness. Eren had no homework to do, and the warmth of the house had sapped his will to do anything around the house. He'd just been lying on his bed, flipping through the pictures on his phone. He took a lot, but rarely actually looked at them. He’d expected to find a trove of absurd and now-inscrutable photos of everyday objects, but mostly what he’d found was group shots. The common denominator in most of these, and the person often holding the camera, was Armin. Scrolling through five hundred photos of him had really driven the point home to Eren that this was becoming a situation.
It also meant he had his phone right in hand, so the device seemed like the obvious means to get this important message to Armin.
Hey Armin I just wanted to let u know that I really like you a lot
That was too lukewarm. If he was going to be that underwhelming and unclear he might as well not even bring it up. He deleted the text without sending it.
Armin look dont be alarmed but lately sometimes I think about kissing u
That more clearly conveyed romantic intent, but it just felt strange.
Hey Arm do u ever think about maybe what it would be like if we went on dates? I think it could actually be really fun if u want to try??? But if it didn’t work out that’d be cool too so yeah what do you th
His phone beeped, and all he had to do was look up a little higher on the screen to see that, naturally, Armin had been the one to text him.
Eren this is very important in two minutes there is a documentary on about dugongs please come watch this with me it is the event of a lifetime I promise you
I've got popcorn in the microwave and everything and I asked already and you can stay for dinner
Eren rolled mostly off of his bed so that he could lean on his nightstand and look out the window. Armin’s bedroom window lined up perfectly with Eren’s own. The gap between them was narrow enough that they’d gotten in huge amounts of trouble as children for trying to engineer a semi-permanent bridge between their rooms.
Armin was there in the window, biting his lip and pointing urgently away behind him as if the television could be found in the hallway. Armin took his sea creatures seriously. They’d have his full attention for at least the next hour, so Eren couldn’t very well have accomplished anything by pestering him with texts anyway. Besides, Armin could gather all the knowledge he pleased by himself, but even when he was sitting there reading he'd always pop up from his book every now and then to tell Eren or Mikasa or whoever else was around about what he'd just learned. It just wasn't the same if he couldn't share it.
Eren nodded at him and then launched himself away from the windowsill towards his bedroom door. Announcing a crush could wait. Dugongs and popcorn and a wide-eyed, enthusiastic best friend could not.
It didn’t have to be today, Eren thought as he pulled on his shoes. This was December; there would be more sentimental moments and perfect opportunities than he could count. By Christmas morning they’d either be dating, or Armin would have turned him down flat and Eren would be consoling himself with a bucketload of iced sugar cookies. There would also probably be a lot of science documentaries and action movies involved in the recovery process. Eren couldn’t really imagine a situation like that without Armin and Mikasa there to make sure he ate and to pat his head occasionally. Whichever way it went, they’d have this settled in no time. Eren was absolutely sure of it.